As fears of a breakout of a full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon grows, Canada is preparing to evacuate about 45,000 of its citizens living in Lebanon, in what will be the largest evacuation in Canadian history.

The Gulf country of Kuwait already began sending airplanes to Lebanon on Shabbos to evacuate its citizens.

Channel 12 News reported on Friday that Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly informed Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz that Canadian military forces have already been sent to the area to prepare for the evacuation.

According to the report, the conversation between the two was “tense.” Katz pressured Joly to urge the Canadian government to pressure Iran to reign in its proxy group Hezbollah and prevent an escalation of the conflict.

Following the conversation, Katz wrote on X. “Israel cannot allow the Hezbollah terror organization to continue attacking its territory and citizens, and soon we will make the necessary decisions. The free world must unconditionally stand with Israel in its war against the axis of evil led by Iran and extremist Islam. Our war is also your war, and Nasrallah’s threat to Cyprus is just the beginning. Evil must be defeated, as history has proven in the past.”

Hezbollah continued to escalate its attacks on Israel on Sunday, launching numerous suicide drones at northern Israel, including an attack near a major Rafael defense factory. An IDF soldier was severely injured in an attack on an IDF base and several fires were ignited by drone hits.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)